Until around 1997 my figure drawing was rather 'stiff' and often lumpish. The subjects needed to 'move' and the best way to do this, I thought, was to draw human beings at their most active...playing sports. To accomplish this, I raided the library for sports images, copied football, basketball and hockey players out of Sports Illustrated, Tae Kwan Do figures out of obscure martial arts magazines...

The first exercise drawings were fairly realistic but then, gradually, they emerged as playful sports caricatures with long gangly limbs, knobby knees and bulbous noses. The 'task' had turned itself into a joyous experience, but the 2-dimensional sports caricatures were not to be the end result.

The manufacturer of my resin dog series, "Cheesecake", "Hambone", "Sneakers", et.al., encouraged me to visualize the 2 dimensional sports caricatures as 3 dimensional figures and...to incorporate them into lamps. Lamps? He had to be kidding! I'd never thought of myself as a lamp designer. Oh, well, why not!

There are now a total of eight sports lamps created from the original sports caricatures - a football player, baseball player, basketball players (male & female), soccer players (male and female), a woman tennis player and a skateboarder. Most of these can be seen on this web site by clicking on the underlined sports listed above.

I'd like it if you took a look at the lamps and other sports caricatures but that's not my reason for writing this little story. Rather, it's about setting reasonable tasks for yourself so you can move forward and make new discoveries. It doesn't matter whether the task is related to art or sports or cuisine, just so long as you use discipline and diligence in exercising those tasks and aren't too rigid in your perceived goal. If a new path presents itself and it looks valid...take it. That's the adventure...

Enjoy the artwork and good luck with your own endeavors.
Roberta Laidman